Conclusion

CONCLUSION.

We cannot conclude without noticing with regret the death of the late Registrar-General, Mr. Lister, who originated the machinery of the Act of Parliament under which we have acted, and was associated with us in this Commission, but did not survive to see its labours completed. By his death we have lost the valuable assistance of a talented colleague, while the public have been deprived of the illustrations, which he might have added to the subject before us.

We here close what we have to offer in explanation and illustration of the pages that follow; they teem with materials for deciding upon many questions which have already divided, or may hereafter interest, the different parties in this country.

Our only object has been to arrange them in such a shape as should render them most accessible to all.

With reference to various questions, and in support of particular views, many modes of classification might be suggested which would be not the less curious and interesting because they could not be carried out with an absolute and scientific degree of accuracy; such attempts, however, would, as we feel, be here misplaced, and may be safely left to the industry and ingenuity of others who have in these pages ample materials placed within their power, and can use them without any official scruples to check their speculations.